News and Views from the Hall LindyJazzMobile
‘11/’12 Installment #13 and the final one
(September 1, 2012)

IN DANCE SHUTDOWN, AND DRIVE TO DAYTON OHIO THIS AUTUMN

Table of Contents:
1. Terpsichorean Status of the Halls
2. Lindy Hop Sartorial Report from the Field
3. Facebooked and Twittered near to Oblivion?
4. Coming Attractions

TERSICHOREAN STATUS OF THE HALLS

Rudy had left shoulder surgery on 7/12. She had three bothersome bone spurs* ground off during a peek-a-boo arthroscopic procedure. She had been putting off attending to this shoulder pathology for a while. She is recovering rapidly, but will be off the dance floor for an estimated 4 months, but maybe 6 months. Who knows. Shoulder surgery is tricky, as is recovery.
*This a result of many tens of thousands of under-arm turns and Lindy pick-ups followed by tuck turns each requiring the follower to do a left arm back-stroke in order to keep from clocking the leader in the jaw.
For us, dancing was slack in July and absent in August. See, while dancing on 7/30, I did something stupid on the dance floor—please, no snarky comments—which rearranged something in my right knee. The rearrangement waited until morning to announce that the knee would not straighten and hurt like hell when I tried. So, I was a hopping uniped until I could get to a cane, and then shortly an immobile biped until Rudy could fetch my crutches (With balky knees like mine, I have been wise to never be without a pair), so then, I could become a triped for two weeks until an orthopedic surgeon in St. Cloud could remove a loose body in the joint which was jamming up my kneewerken. In medical jargon, such a loose body is known, as a “joint mouse”, but this one was large enough to justify calling it a “joint rat” but the doctor said it was more like a “joint badger”. Anyway, this is my 4th arthroscopic knee surgery—does that sound like enough temporizing knee surgery? My answer is “YES”, and so, with courage sufficient, the tentative plans are to have two new knees installed while in Dayton Ohio this winter. If done, I remain ambivalent about ever dancing Lindy Hop again. It’s like this, all the joint replacement literature advises ballroom dancing only. Not good news. Look! If I can’t dance the way I want to, I don’t want to dance at all. Besides I have seen the Frankensteinian gait in my friends with double knee replacement, and the tippsy-sailor-on-shore-liberty rolling gait of those with single knee replacement. Look, I know I am no Fred Estair on my feet, but….think about it… Frankenstein/drunk sailor….who would want to dance with me, or worse, could I? BUT, Hey! no tears here. It’s not as though I have not had enough. Rudy and I have been swing dancing heavy, fast and often since 1992.

LINDY HOP SARTORIAL STATUS REPORT FROM THE FIELD

Rudy and I are eat up with OLD, but contrary to a bogus rumor, we didn’t have anything to do with start-up of the Lindy Hop resurrection/revival, but we were hanging-out at the margins soon after it blossomed. So, we have seen the sartorial status of California Lindy Hop change from vintage well-dressed to grunge, and now a report from the ’12 Camp Hollywood notes a recent reversal to modern faux-vintage well-dressed (men in slacks and coats, and women in skirts and low heels). Is there something wrong with jeans, sweats, tees, and cut-offs? No, but we prefer to see modern faux-vintage well-dressed dancers. Does it change the dance, making it better or worse? I don’t think so, and correct me it you think dressing “stylishly” to Lindy Hop is superfluous, ostenatious or worthless.
It is my studied opinion that dress for Balboa is bleeding over into California Lindy Hop, but I have been wrong before.

FACEBOOKED AND TWITTERED NEAR TO OBLIVION?

I check-in on three LH boards daily: MNLindy, Jive Junction, and Yehoodi, but am giving up on all three as of TODAY Aug 11, 2012. The last post on Jive Junction was May 22 by me, the last on MNLindy was July 28, with 4 posts in July, a whopping 7 in June, and 4 in May. Yehoodi, the lone surviving so-called national LH board has had 20 posts since Aug 4, and most of them are about doin’s in the Big Apple. Hey! It is what it is, but I think the social media explosion has caused peripheral damage to LH media. I’ve fussed about this before, but I’m not going to fuss any more. I have already voted, “NO!” with my mouse.

COMING ATTRACTIONS

There are no “Coming Attractions” as this is the last “News and Views from the Hall LindyJazzMobile”. I have been cranking out this semi-ridiculous periodical under this title for 10 years, and previously for 3 years under various titles. We do not travel as much as previously, and I doubt we will, as we anticipate selling the LindyJazzMobile. At our ages, the rigors of the road in a motor home have become daunting. Neither do I expect we will be dancing all that much, or at all, and so, this is a propitious moment to end what has been a fun and rewarding endeavor of writing about our travels, about dancing and music, about the many friends made on the LindyJazzMobile trail, plus getting to editorialize whenever sufficient annoyance or passion arises.
“It's good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end." -- Ursula K. LeGuin
It’s been one hellova great 20 year dance journey, 1992-2012, on two continents, 9 countries, a whole bunch of States, and more cities and venues than I can possibly ever count. We didn’t see the end of the journey coming, but we are comfortable with the decision to get off the LindyJazzMobile trail.
And so, Adieu!